While consumers can fall victim to a variety of scams, experts say gift card draining was one of the most common scams that affected people's lives in 2023.
What's worse, just about any gift card is vulnerable.
Card draining occurs when a thief tampers with a gift card and "drains" the money before the funds are used by the consumer. The AARP reported last year that 23% of U.S. consumers had given or received gift cards that did not have money on them.
These so-called card-draining scams are easy to execute because scammers "have easy access to the technology" used to carry them out, specifically bad bots, according to Arkose Labs CEO Kevin Gosschalk, whose cybersecurity company specializes in bot mitigation and consumer account security.
Scammers can go out to the dark web and even some websites on the legitimate internet and buy these bad bots, which have "lowered the barrier to entry to scamming. Scammers no longer have to know how to code," Gosschalk said, adding that "this reality has enabled more scammers to attack at volume and with velocity."
Sometimes a scam can take place before the card is even purchased because a scammer can tamper with the cards at the store and put them back on the shelf.
Once the card has been purchased, that card can theoretically be used by a scammer even before it's redeemed, he added. For instance, scammers use bots to figure out the combinations on the back of the cards so that they can drain the money on the cards, according to Gosschalk.
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Data from Arkose Labs' threat intelligence unit revealed that nearly 60% of internet traffic to gift card websites is by malicious bots.
"Gift card draining is a numbers game. The more cards that scammers can drain the more money they can steal," he added. "It behooves them to use bots that can drain thousands of gift cards within seconds."
It is also easy for scammers to get away with, said David McClellan, co-founder of Social Catfish, a company that uses reverse search technology to prevent scams.
"Gift cards are one of the most popular currencies for online scammers in general because they are harder for the authorities to trace than a bank transaction," McClellan said.
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To protect yourself, McClellan said it's important to ensure that gift cards come with a protective seal and that tape covers the PIN.
He also warned that consumers should be wary of purchasing them online from online gift card exchanges such as CardCash and Raise "as scammers will sell $100 cards in exchange for $75 in cash."
While all gift cards are vulnerable, McClellan warned that Amazon, Target, eBay and Razer Gold are among the most popular gift cards targeted by scammers.
